In the early 1980s, I was hitchhiking from Massachusetts to Virginia to attend a wedding. My brother dropped me off at the junction of the Mass Pike and route 495 that morning, and, about ten minutes later, a trucker picked me up. I rode with him all the way to Baltimore… a great first ride.

More than two weeks later, after visiting Virginia, Illinois, and Wisconsin, I was hitchhiking home and my ride dropped me off after sunset at the junction of 495 and the Mass Pike. Getting rides after dark is almost impossible, so I was facing sleeping out or walking 15 miles home.

While standing there by the side of the highway, thinking through my options, I jumped straight up in the air when a truck hit the brakes so hard the tires smoked and the truck looked like it was about to jack-knife. After the truck stopped a few yards from me, I ran up to the passenger side and opened the door; there was my friend from the first day of my trip. It turned out that he lived about a mile from my house and he dropped me off right at my street. He was so stunned that he had given me both the first and last ride of my trip that he couldn’t stop exclaiming about it during the drive.

Nevertheless, he could not have been any more astonished than I was, and it still stands out in my mind as one of the most impressive coincidences of my life.

I just completed my test for sixth kyu level in aikido. This is the very first test you take as a new student. We did testing during our dojo’s New Year celebration. We marked the event (the new year, not my test! ) by performing 1,000 swings of our wooden swords. I found the exercise interesting and really painful. I’m barely able to hold my hands up to type this! To avoid having this difficulty next year, I’m thinking of practicing the cuts once a week. I also think there is something to learn in doing a motion that seems so simple on the outside, but may have depths to explore.

It was a pretty big day for several folks in our little school. Senior student Jason got his USAF teaching license, Brenda got her 3rd Dan, and Eric passed his 1st kyu test.

Aside

Fitness folks, guess what? I’ve started a light exercise program again. After two years (or has it been three?) I’m back in the game–in a small way, at least. I’m doing a light lifting/bodyweight workout and riding about 40 miles a week on my bike, working up to a planned 60 miles per week commuting.

As part of being out on the road a lot, I’ve recently realized that having some ID on me would be good if I’m in a wreck, and decided to go with the “Road ID” thing; it’s like a dog tag. The version I got has a phone number the first responders can call to learn about who I am and any medical conditions I have.

I’ve been having fun for the last few weeks, taking lessons in basic Spanish using the duolingo.com iPhone app. I’ll try to post regular updates here as I move forward. So far, this is the most excited I’ve been about learning something new since I started learning to knit. One reason I’m excited is that I found a very interesting site and program called “Fluent in 3 months,” by a very funny guy who calls himself ‘Benny the Irish Polyglot,’ which focuses on an idea he calls language hacking. I love the very pragmatic approach he advocates; so much so that I bought his Speak from Day 1 training program. I’ll let you know how it works out for me.

Back in the 1970s, when I was a teen-aged nerd, being a nerd was horrible. People made fun of you, you couldn’t talk to girls, you probably had bad clothes and bad glasses.

Being a nerd when you’re in your 50s is entirely different. You’re probably being paid for many of the qualities that made you a nerd in the first place.

There’s no need to (attempt to) hide your nerd status, since everyone around you already knows you’re a nerd and accepts you for that. Besides, there’s a lot more social acceptance for nerds and you are also probably hanging around with–or are married to–other nerds.

You may also find that you just don’t care as much what people think of you!

I made my first on-air contact on Sunday. I got a warm reception from some folks on the repeaters, including a chat with a gentleman in Goose Creek, SC, about 160 miles south of here. Turns out that some of the repeaters in South Carolina are networked together on the weekend.

…or words to that effect. I haven’t done it yet, but the first time I call CQ I’ll probably say something like that. I just got my amateur radio license from the FCC this past Thursday, and I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my new radio. I have a fear of sounding utterly stupid on my first contact, so I’m planning to listen for a few days before keying the mic for the first time..

As is often the case, media coverage(if it bleeds, it leads) is intense after one of these incidents, even when—as it appears with the “Empire State Building” shooting and the Texas A&M-neighborhood shooting—the events are not strictly of the same sort. The shooting of the constable might not have even made the national news if it hadn’t seemed on first report to fit the ‘mass shootings’ model. Don’t believe me? Did you hear about the “weekend of violence” in Chicago at the end of August? Nine dead and another 37 wounded. But… no nationwide headlines, because these are “ordinary” killings. As a side note, why are the seven folks at the Sikh temple more newsworthy than the nine in Chicago? Bear with me.

After each of the mass murders in the last decade, you can count on seeing certain things in the media…

This has to be one of the best bits of packaging I’ve ever seen. I bought this product when I was first trying to move away from using disposable razors. I have moved on to much better razors, but I’ve kept this package.